Sharing Experiences Raising Organic Chickens, Quail & Pigeons

CONTENTS PAGE

Organically raised chickens, quail, fantail pigeons and the occasional guest poultry all living in 1000m2 of organic forest garden. The following articles attempt to look at the poultry's view of life in the backyard and to observe and share how they thrive and survive in the environment we created for them. On the occasions when I need to intervene, I do so with a holistic approach to the bird as an individual and also to infer from the situation what this tells me about the general health, happiness and dynamics of the flock. I look at stress management and show how to use nutrition and phytotherapy for both prevention and cure of various conditions.
These articles are on-going, they occur either as they happen to us or because someone has asked me for help with their birds and thus to share what I have learned from the experience.

THE LATEST ARTICLE - A THREE PARTER:

The Cochin Craze - A Story of Addiction

Small chick. Big backstory! These fluffy bundles, which I have been raising for the past ten years have a unique and fascinatingly terrible history, involving bloody wars, tea, silver and above all opium. The first article looks into how the Cochin arrived in the West and created the chicken version of Tulip Mania...read more

GENERAL POULTRY

How to care for and keep organic poultry - happy.

This is Diavolo, he's a Crested Polish Frizzle and he knows more about what he should and shouldn't be eating than any of us ever will...read more

Choosing chickens for a garden, Smallholding or homestead

Thumbing through old horticultural magazines of the mid 1800s one finds included in their columns information on poultry, pigeons and bees. The editorial carries special
features on...read more

Creating a food forest garden for ourselves, poultry, wildlife and planet - Part One

Forest gardening fulfils that yearning for freedom and symbolic break-out.. a proactive outcome of taking personal control ...read more

4 Homemade Gothic Vampyre Costumes for Chickens

Although I am serious about organic agriculture and sharing ideas about forest garden poultry, most of what we
do here is a lot of fun...read more

Forest Garden Poultry - Symbiosis. Putting the Jungle Back in the Fowl

The first part of a series in which I compare actual field studies on wild Jungle Fowl behaviours and see how my Forest Garden Flock compare...read more

Forest Garden Poultry - Food. Putting the Jungle Back in the Fowl 2

In which I share and discuss comparisons between Jungle fowl diets, including favourite foods and that of our forest garden flock...read more

FOOD

Sprouting grain and pulses for your flock, where, why, how, what and when?

I'm not a great fan of cultivated grain,
we like to limit it in our own diet so why not in our poultry's. If you read the average bag of even organic pelleted food...read more

Providing Forage for Organic Poultry Part 1

Going backwards to go forward - If you are setting up a forest garden to run your poultry
through it, you are probably going to be short of certain wild pasture elements...read more

Providing Forage for Organic Poultry Part 2

Continuing an in-depth look into forage and discussing the what, when, where from and why...read more

Food for Free. Fabulous Forage Part 1 Grass

For
centuries farmers and homesteaders raised poultry on a forage-based
diet supplemented only by a handful of grain and the occasional..read more

Food for Free. Fabulous Forage Part 2 Chickweed

Stellaria media an incredible food and medicinal for poultry, an in-depth look at this ubiquitous weed..read more

Food for Free. Fabulous Forage Part 3 Tree Fodder & Tree Hay

The idea of tree fodder is inextricably linked with the changing
landscape, the full domestication of animals, the concept of farming and
the clearance of the forests... read more

Food for Free. Fabulous Forage Part 4 Roses for Food & Forest

For me the rose is the quintessential forest garden plant, from canopy to ground cover there are so many to choose from ... read more

Food for Free. Fabulous Forage Part 5 Rose Petals

One of the main roses I use for both cooking, medicinals and which my
hens very much enjoy is, not surprisingly, rosa gallica Officinalis, or
The Apothecary Rose... read more

HATCHING AND RAISING QUAIL

Why and how? Getting started.

I had read that for centuries in Japan and China quail eggs had been used in the treatment of various respiratory diseases and allergies. Finding no organic eggs on the market, I decided to raise them myself...read more

Taking you through the first few days.

Polly and the quail at three days old and already something of a handful! I kept them in the nest for the first three days, letting them gain in strength...read more

How your hen can bring out the best in baby quail.

Years of selective breeding have not only bred the broodiness out of domesticated quail but also their ability to identify and seek out their own food. read more

Understanding broodiness in hens. How this helps in raising quail

The idea of 'a' broody hen is a simplified human interpretation of what is a complex and recurring phase in a bird's life. ...read more

Choosing the right Mother Hen

Raising quail with a hen is a three way process, there has to be understanding and adaptability from both mother and chick(s) but there also has to be...read more

One of my quail has gone broody and is sitting eggs.

So here I am with my design for a secure quail breeding area still in
the workshop and Ginger already sitting and on her 6th day of incubation...read more

One of my quail has gone broody and is sitting eggs - Update.

I should have known nothing is ever simple with quail but it certainly is exciting...read more

One of my quail has gone broody - Update 2.

Everything seemed to be going well, Ginger, our golden coturnix quail had been sitting her second nest very seriously now for 14 days ...read more

My quail is raising her own chicks - Update 3.

I was amazed by the way Ginger had accepted the quail chicks and they had instantly warmed to her...read more

Identification of riboflavin deficiency in purchased quail and hatching eggs

Quail have a high basal metabolic rate and as such their problems with nutrition are dramatically and rapidly revealed...read more

Cure curled toe paralysis (riboflavin deficiency)

For my 'field study', I am using the example of quail chicks, from
non-organic purchased hatching eggs because this is the area in which,
sadly I have a great deal of experience ..read more

A comprehensive guide into the history & use of quail eggs in medicine Part 1

How we cured Andy's hay fever and eczema with a dip into Ancient Egypt and 60's France...read more

A comprehensive guide into the history & use of quail eggs in medicine Part 2

Now we eat quail eggs for pleasure..here I look in depth at the clinical trials in the 1960s and the posology used then and by us...read more

Tips and strategies for raising natural organic quail chicks

I hadn't really intended that 'Snow Kitten' should raise quail but she
was broody and I'm always wanting to spread the word on cage-free quail.
In fact it caused quite a stir and eve...read more

Encouraging Pair-bonding, Nesting and Broodiness in Coturnix Quail

I'm sharing the setting up of a safe quail breeding area. Andy and I created this last year but the broody quail beat us to it...read more

The Colours of Coturnix Quail - Intro & Brown

In the pages of this site, I write mostly on practical issues and as 'The Holistic Hen', I do always hope that I am looking at the whole bird. Thus plumage colour is important ....read more

The Colours of Coturnix Quail 2 - Gold

The controversial Golden quail is there just one or more and what's with the yellow lethal allele? That and more discussed here....read more

HATCHING AND RAISING CHICKS

Laying and nesting away. How to move hen, eggs and chicks

Hatching chicks is an amazing experience and....an event which is the harbinger of Spring in our little smallholding/homestead...read more

Coping with protracted hatching and large clutches, chicks, ducks and quail

When you find your broody, particularly on a large nest, consider the possibility that these are not all her own eggs and that they were not all laid at the same time...read more

How to cope with chicks in cold weather. Part 1

With the weather being so capricious at the moment, the hens are risking late hatches, so I'm sharing some of the strategies I use to get the best outcome for the chicks and Mother...read more

How to cope with chicks in cold weather. Part 2

Including provision for vitamin D3 and B12 and the amino acids essential for feather growth, physical, nervous and immune system support...read more

How to cope with chicks in cold weather. Part 3

Greenhouses as an ideal solution for raising chicks in the cold wet months and at how to make sure of optimum nutrient provision...read more

Broody adopts chicks in cold weather.

Some times people comment in surprise on my films that a hen will raise anything but her own eggs but this is only half the story...read more

The case of the unhatchable egg

How importance is exact temperature in hatching an egg? A look at broodiness, Aesop and the marvellous surprises nature has in store...read more

HATCHING AND RAISING DUCKS

What to do when a duck deserts on day of hatch

One of the unwritten rules of reciprocal homesteading is that animals or birds always choose the time you are away to have a crisis! read more

Sharing two home-made infusions for the treatment of eyes. They are both edible so there is no problem if your bird drinks them...read more

Common Poultry Lice identification, life cycle and major infestation periods

Menacanthus stramineusare ectoparasites, thus living on the skin...with a short life span, which in adult form, is from 2 to 3 weeksread more

Common Poultry Lice - Treatment and Prevention

When you apply any sort of viscous carrier oil to a louse, the spiracles, pores through which it breathes, become blocked, however,read more

Ticks - Identification, life cycle and lifestyle

I have to say right from the start the more I read about ticks the more confused I get. There is a volume of information floating about...read more

Ticks - Treatment and Removal from a pigeon's face

The idea of using Tea Tree Essential oil is because it has anaesthetic, antibacterial, antiviral, antiseptic, antimicrobial properties...read more

Scaly Leg and Face Mite Infestations Why They Happen & What To Do Part 1

I look at the correlation between specific
deficiency and parasitisation because it is fundamental to everything I
believe is wrong...read more

Scaly Leg Mite Infestations What To Do Part 2

I look at the options both medicinal and nutritional for dealing with this microscopic mite ...read more

Scaly Face Mite Infestations Treatment Part 3

If you haven't this miraculous substance already in your pantry then I
advise you to get some, both for your own and your poultry's health...read more

INDIVIDUAL CHICKEN BREEDS

Polish Crested - Beauty, Brains and Rusticity.

It's hard to believe that a creature which looks so frou-frou can be anything but ornamental and therefore totally unsuited to a backyard or smallholding but in the following article...read more

Frizzles for a Forest Garden Part 1

In some countries, such as here in France, Frizzles are often viewed as
an individual breed rather than a form of feather mutation, which can
occur across several races...read more

Frizzles for a Forest Garden 2 Behaviour & Emotions

Spike is a fine example of a Polish Frizzle and has also something which I believe well illustrates the dilemma faced by the Frizzled bird...read more

The Cochin Craze - A Story of Addiction

These fluffy bundles, which I have been raising
for ten years have a unique and fascinatingly terrible history,
involving bloody wars, tea, silver and above all opium. A three part article on the chicken version of Tulip Mania and my own Cochin..read more

The Cochin Craze 2. From Craze to Mania

'The
introduction of these fowls...was a memorable event in the history of
poultry; since they undoubtedly awakened a startling "mania" which was,
calmly considered, one of the most curious phenomena of the nineteenth
century'...read more

PIGEONS

Free-ranging fantails in a forest garden

There is nothing quite as beautiful as fantails flying in the open skies. They have a poetry of their own read more

Introduction to hand-feeding pigeons in an emergency or otherwise - Why, What & When

This is a several-part post dealing with how to cope with feeding baby and juvenile pigeons in a variety of circumstances. This will include domesticated pigeons and those found abandoned in the wild.read more

ABOUT ME

Born on a farm in the UK with 3,000+ hens and 300 turkeys. Now in France with 30+ hens & cockerels plus pigeons and quail.

My Youtube Channel - Organic hens, roses, recipes and much more.

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